A Box of Chocolates
by TeamFrancis Long May She Reign
Summary: Life at French court has always been dangerous but when Mary's life is threatened Francis must be her knight in shining armor. Loyalties are never certain and Francis must realize who is friend and who is foe. Can Francis catch the culprit and save Mary's life or will he miss out on his chance to tell her how he feels? Can he really have the girl of his dreams or is too late?
1. A Queen Brought Down

Present Francis

Francis threw open the doors to Mary's chambers without being announced. He strode into the center and accessed the situation. The faces of four tear streaked  
girls shot up at the slamming of the door but they quickly turned back to the center of their attention. An elderly physician stood in a corner instructing a page on the materials he required. In the otherwise perfectly tidy room a foreign object strewn across the floor caught the prince's eye. It was beautifully wrapped box of chocolates. Francis crouched to examine it closer. The box was upside down and ornately decorated truffles lay scattered around it. It was obvious that the box had been dropped and with a growing sense of dread Francis knew what had happened.

Flashback Francis

As heir to the kingdom of France Francis had been well educated on etiquette. Sitting at the formal table used for state banquets with your father, mother, and half brother in complete and awkward silence, however, was not ideal. Francis could barely sit still as he glanced at the empty chair to his right. Mary's presence was what made family meals bearable and her absence was unsettling. Meals could not be started until every quest was seated and due to Mary's tardiness the royal family was forced to delay breaking their fast.

Francis sighed and opened his mouth to speak when a page burst thought the door. "My lord, she, that is Mary." A sharp cough halted his hurried words. Henry laughed. "Calm yourself man! She has overslept I assume? Not matter . Tell her to take her time, we shall wait for her." The page bent down to put his hands on his knees and collect his breath. " No my lord, she hasn't overslept. That's the problem, she can't be woken."

Francis was out of his chair before another word was spoken and sprinted as hard as he could for Mary's room. His blood ran cold as the possibilities of what he would encounter in Mary's room flooded through his mind.


	2. A Queen Confused

Present Francis

He stood up and walked to the large canopy bed. In the middle a horrifying scene played out. Mary, his usually robust, smiling, intelligent and beautiful companion looked like death personified. Normally rosy cheeks were pale and those lovely chocolate brown eyes were covered by dark and heavy eyelids. Her long and graceful fingers that could always be seen fiddling in an unladylike manner with a necklace or a strand of hair were weakly grasping at wrinkled sheets. He fell to his knees and grabbed her hand. Without thinking he brought the hand to his lips and pressed a kiss into the pale and shaking hand.

Present Mary

The action caught the attention of the sickly queen. She slowly opened her eyes. She locked gazes with the most gorgeous pair of blue eyes. Francis. A small smile graced her face but something was wrong. Why did those normally sparkling eyes look anxious? Why was she looking at him from such a strange angle? More importantly why did her hand feel so heavy in his, why did her eyelids keep threatening to close, and why did she feel weaker than a newborn babe? The smile dropped from her face as she tried to remember.

She couldn't remember what had happened to her and that truly frightened her. She began to panic. She tried sitting up in bed but a gentle hand on her shoulder held her down. Look at the owner of the hand an seeing the tears threatening to fall Mary finally broke down. The tears rushing down her face were quickly wiped away by a soft yet masculine and. "Francis" she whimpered, sounding like the young woman she was and not the mature queen she tried to be.

Present Francis

The sound of Mary's broken voice hurt Francis in a way he didn't know was possible. It made Francis want to do terrible things to the person behind the, as he suspected, poisoned chocolates. Despite the fact that he had an inkling of who had done this he couldn't bring himself to admit that he would be willing to kill the person, family or not. The sobbing tired out the already feeble girl and she fell into a fitful sleep. Francis smoothed a stray piece of hair back into its place and placed a gentle kiss to her fevered forehead. He stood up, took a moment to compose himself, and then faced the other people present. He wanted answers and he was not leaving until he was satisfied with what those present had to say.


	3. A Queen's Admirer

Flashback Mary

Mary walked into her room to find a beautifully wrapped box of her favorite chocolates on her desk. The mysterious note read, "From an admirer". She giggled. A secret admirer warms any girl's heart. One small truffle before bed wouldn't hurt. She picked out a dark chocolate caramel an popped it into her mouth. As she savored the sweet she examined the box and observed that somehow the person had picked out all of her favorites. "That's odd" she said to herself. Only one person in the castle knew her favorite chocolates and that person was most definitely not an admirer. It wasn't possible… was it? No she wouldn't dare. Mary suddenly felt dizzy. Dropping the box of chocolates she stumbled to her bed and toppled into it. As her body became less responsive and her heavy eyelids started to close one thought crossed her mind. Catherine.


End file.
